Montreal: Rene Bourque posted the first post-season hat-trick of his career on Tuesday as Montreal stayed alive in the NHL playoffs with a 7-4 win over the New York Rangers.
The Canadiens fended off elimination in the Eastern Conference final, closing the gap in the best-of-seven series to three-games-to-two.
“I’ve had a few [hat-tricks] before, but obviously this was the biggest of my career,” Bourque said. “It’s nice. It’s nice to get rewarded.”
Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk added a goal and assist each for the Canadiens, who received additional goals from Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais.
Andrei Markov added three assists, Lars Eller and Dale Weise assisted on a pair of scores apiece, while goalie Dustin Tokarski stopped 23 shots in the victory. Derek Stepan, playing with a broken jaw, scored a pair of goals for the Rangers, who battled back from a 4-1 deficit but couldn’t close it out.
They will get another chance to book their Stanley Cup finals berth when they host game six on Thursday.
The winners of the series will face either the reigning champion Chicago Blackhawks or the Los Angeles Kings for the NHL crown.
Chris Kreider contributed a goal and three assists and Rick Nash also scored for New York.
Cam Talbot surrendered two goals on eight shots in relief of starting Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who exited after yielding four goals on 19 chances.
Bourque was sent up the middle thanks to a Weise pass that eluded two Rangers players and completed his trifecta at 6:33 of the third period, giving Montreal a 6-4 lead.
Montreal were up 3-1 in the second period when Bourque fired in from close range just after a Canadiens power play expired to give Montreal a 4-1 lead at 6:54 of the second.
That chased Lundqvist, and Bourque was happy to have played a part in that.
“Everybody talks about how he’s a great goalie,” Bourque said. “Has he been better than [Dustin Tokarski] this series? I don’t think so.”
His second goal of the contest came earlier in the second, with a stinging shot from the high slot that broke a 4-4 tie at 15:10 of the second frame.
“He not only had three goals but three very timely goals,” winger Brendan Gallagher said. “When we needed a guy to step up, he was there for us.”
After Bourque’s third goal, tensions were evident. Rangers defenceman John Moore put a late hit on Weise that left him dizzy and could bring a sanction from the NHL.
